The Wrecker Man

Summary: Janice and Darius just wanted to get away to their special cabin in the woods. However the appearance of a mysterious girl made them stop unexpectedly on a lonely mountain road. Now they are trapped.

The Wrecker Man

The twin yellow lines
glowed with intensity as they reflected light from the high-beams of the black station
wagon. Janice sat behind the wheel
navigating the vehicle along the winding, mountain road as Darius sat in the
passenger’s seat staring out into the inky woods which passed by in a blur.

“We’re officially in
the fucking sticks.” Darius mumbled from
the passenger seat, his eyes never wavering away from looking beyond the
window.

Janice glanced over
to her right after Darius broke the silence that seemed to last for far too
long. Darius had his back to her but she
could make out some of his scowl from the reflection in the passenger
window.

“We should almost be
at the end of this road according to the map.
From there we can hit the interstate and fly right on up into Warwick.” Janice spoke timidly as she knew Darius was
getting uneasy.

They were an official
couple for five years now and already had a tradition of going up to New York
State in October to take in a weekend of camping. Janice had an uncle that left her father a
cabin when he passed away from stomach cancer at the age of thirty-five. His death shocked the family and her father
never wanted anything to do with that cabin as it brought back too many tearful
memories from when he and his brother were younger.

When October came
around Janice would take the key off the hook that was screwed into the wall
right by the kitchen light switch and head on up to the cabin for a weekend
getaway. She never told anyone she was
going, nor did she think anyone would give a shit anyway.

“How can you tell? It
is pitch black out there and it has been over a year since we have been up this
way. We aren’t lost.”

Truth be told, Janice
knew they were lost.

“Look at you so high
and mighty! I can tell by your voice you
know we’re lost. We have been on this
road for over twenty minutes; I don’t remember any of this from our past
trips.”

“Oh, so you are
saying you would remember all of this from last year Darius? Are you fucking kidding me?”

Adjusting himself in
the passenger seat Darius turned to face Janice, the seatbelt making a light
zipping sound as it brushed up against his nylon windbreaker.

He was about to snap
back at Janice when he saw how beautiful her face was, the soft blue dashboard
lights bringing out the softness in her skin and the playful sparkle in her
eyes.

“Ok. If we are lost so be it. I don’t want to get into an argument with
you. This is our weekend.”

Darius reached over
and placed his hand on Janice’s thigh; giving it a gentle squeeze.

Janice smiled and
looked over to Darius; locking eyes. She
leaned over and kissed him on the forehead.
She gave him one more smile then looked back to the road.

“Oh shit!” Janice screamed and slammed on the
breaks. Darius’ seat belt locked pinning
him to his seat as the car’s tires shrieked against pavement.

The black station
wagon fishtailed and skidded to a stop within an inch of the girl standing in
the middle of the road, both feet on the yellow lines.

Thin, wispy smoke
from the burning tire rubber passed through the headlight beams creating
undulating shadows moving across the girl’s face. To Janice she looked like a ghost, standing
right in front of them completely motionless; eyes staring straight ahead at
nothing in particular.

“Jesus Christ!” Darius spoke out loudly as he clumsily
fingered his seatbelt latch to unlock it.

The mechanism clicked
and Darius threw it off his chest, opening the passenger door all in one
motion.

“Darius!” Janice reached over to grab him before he
could get out of the car but she was too slow.

Darius had been known
to have a short temper and Janice did not want any trouble with this crazy girl
standing in the middle of the road.

“What the hell is
wrong with you?” Darius yelled to the
girl as he rounded the front of the car.

Darius stopped
suddenly as he saw the girl was wearing a dirty, tattered dress that may have
been a pale blue at one time, but now it was impossible to tell.

The dirty dress hung
down to the girl’s ankles and danced on the slight October breeze, dried leaves
and grass being pulled off of it as if the night wanted to claim them. But what made Darius stop so suddenly was the
blood pooling at her bare feet.

Janice flung open her
door and hesitantly ran to the front of the car. “Oh my God…”

Janice also stopped
suddenly, bringing a hand to her mouth as she took in a disbelieving gasp.

Looking over the hood
of the car Janice and Darius looked at each other then back to the girl who
still stood completely motionless. She
then blinked her eyes once and tried to speak but it came out as nothing more
than a whisper; inaudible over the idling engine.

“Are you ok?”

Janice took a step
towards the girl but froze when her head whipped around in Janice’s
direction.

“Whoah!” Darius yelled out as he extended his hand in
a gesture to calm the girl down.

Janice looked at the
girl and felt troubled by her appearance.
“I’m not going to hurt you. Are
you ok, do you need help? We can take
you to a hospital if you are hurt.”

The girl just looked
at Janice as if she were in complete shock.
Being this close to the girl Janice could see that her eyes seemed to be
plastered open and the smell of blood hung in the air, redolent and
unsavory.

“I don’t know about
this Janice!” Darius spoke loud enough
to be heard over the idling car and the now intensifying wind. “This is fucked up, something is wrong here. What happened to her? We are in the middle of nowhere! Where did she come from? How did she get here?”

“She is obviously
hurt Darius, just look at her!” Janice
started to regain her composure. “We
can’t just leave her here.”

“Let’s just get her
to the side of the road and drive a bit further down. Maybe there is a gas station or something and
we can call for help.” Darius spoke
nervously.

“We can’t do that, we
have to take her with us.”

Janice averted her
attention back from the way they had come; a thick fog was rolling in
swallowing the road and the tree line on both sides. The wind picked up even more intensity,
however the fog seemed undisturbed as it slowly slithered its way towards
them.

Darius was about to
shout once again at the girl but he turned his gaze in the direction they had
come also once he saw the capricious look on Janice’s face. “What the fuck is that?”

“I…I don’t know. It looks like fog but not like any fog I have
ever seen before.” As Janice spoke she
tried to rub a fresh batch of goose bumps away.

Darius was still
watching the fog roll in. “Me
either. Come on, let’s get the girl into
the car and get out of here.”

“Oh fuck,
Darius!” Janice spoke in a panic, her
eyes focused to the front of the car where a pool of blood coated the road and
where a mysterious girl once stood.

“Forget it! I don’t like this one bit Janice, let’s just
get in the car and get out of here.”

Simultaneously they
ran back into the car and slammed their doors shut.

Darius was shaking
his head in disbelief. “Where did she
go?”

Janice was trying to
regain her composure a bit as she looked over to Darius. “I have no idea she was standing right
there. I saw her…I saw her vanish.”

“What the hell are
you talking about, you saw her vanish?
She ran away?” There was
something about the girl he did not like, something that made the hairs on his
arms stand up as if an electrical current was coursing through his body.

When he looked back
the way they had come and saw the fog, his first impulse was to get the hell
out of there. There was something not
right about the fog as well. It was
thick yes, but it did not move like fog should.
The wind was strong, yet it had no effect on it.

“No, she didn’t run
away. She vanished. I saw her disappear Darius.” Janice spoke with true fear in her voice, her
eyes starting to glass over with raw emotion.

“You know, under
different circumstances I wouldn’t believe you but …well let’s get the fuck out
of here ok?”

Janice felt a bit
better that Darius was scared as well, deep down it made her feel as if she
weren’t really crazy. Darius was right,
this was some weird shit going on and all she wanted to do at this point was
haul ass out of there and leave it all behind.

Janice put her foot
on the brake, pushed in the button on the shifter to put the car in drive but
the car stalled out.

“No! It didn’t stall did it?” Darius could not believe it.

Janice turned the key
in the ignition but not a sound came from the engine. “You have to be kidding me!”

She tried over and
over but the car refused to start.

Janice gave up trying
as she noticed a flickering of light in the rear-view mirror. It was very faint but it undulated as if it
were a beacon pleading for her attention.
Sitting in the passenger seat Darius noticed it as well and he spun
around in his seat to look out the back window.

Within the thick fog
that was seemingly swallowing the road and nearby tree line a yellow light
throbbed. The light was as bizarre as
the rest of the events that were unfolding and they both did not like it one
bit.

The two of them sat
in the car and quickly stole glances at one another then back the way they had
come trying to comprehend what was actually going on. “Darius, I’m scared.” Janice spoke timidly while her eyes remained
glued to the now unmoving fog. “What is
that light?”

Darius looked puzzled
as he studied the fog and the light coming from within. “I’m not sure. It almost looks like a light from a police
car or…tow truck…maybe?”

As if on cue a
gleaming red tow truck emerged from the fog coming to a stop with its chrome
bumper directly at the fog’s edge. The
truck sat there with its lone bubble light sitting atop the roof casting off
the yellow radiance, its engine’s fine-tuned rumble sounding like a hungry
beast.

Both Darius and
Janice tried to make out who was driving, however between the fog and the crazy
luminescence of the yellow light all they could see was the silhouette of a
dark figure behind the wheel. Just then
the truck began to creep forward.

The first impulse for
Janice was to open her door and run although she was not quite sure why. An inner voice told her if she stayed in the
car she would die; she believed it to her core.

“We have to get out
of here!” Janice shouted as she pried at
the latch on the door. There was no
click, no feeling of the inner mechanism releasing, the door remained
shut.

“Calm down! I agree this does not seem right but I don’t
think there is a reason to lose our cool and panic!” Darius spoke in a tone where he did not even
convince himself of what he was trying to portray to Janice.

“It has to be locked,
unlock the doors! Mine isn’t opening
either!” Darius was unsure of where his
sudden dread went over the top but he had never wanted to get out of a car with
more urgency then he did at that moment.
“Unlock the fucking doors Janice!!”

“I already told you,
they aren’t locked! They just aren’t
opening!” Janice was now prying at the
latch as she threw her shoulder into the door trying to get it open.

“Enough of this shit,
do you have anything in here I can use to break the window, a screwdriver, a
flashlight; anything?” Darius spoke in a
panic as he nearly pulled the door off of the glove compartment. He clumsily fumbled through the storage space
tossing out the car manual, registration and insurance card in the
process.

The sound of a door
squeaking stopped them from their actions.
It was then that they noticed the deep rumble of the tow truck’s engine
was much louder. They both slowly turned
around to look behind them, their jaws dropped when they noticed the truck was
within inches of their car, its driver’s door yawning open.

“Oh shit. Oh shit, where is he?” Janice’s lower lip began to quiver, her eyes
glazing over in a fresh wave of tears.

“This is
ridiculous! He probably thinks we are
stuck here and wants to help. We are
simply making each other fucking crazy Janice.”
Within his head Darius was screaming at himself. Janice wasn’t stupid and neither was he. He knew they were in trouble but was merely
trying to sugar coat it.

Trembling like mad,
Janice turned back around in her seat. “I’m going to try to start it again!”

She turned the key in
the ignition with no response. “God dammit,
why won’t you just start?” She began to
pummel the steering wheel with clenched fists.
“Start motherfucker!”

Looking on, Darius
began to reach over to try and calm Janice down when a figure appeared outside
the back window illuminated in red from the taillights.

“Oh my God…” Darius spoke as his body tensed up with
trepidation.

It was then he tried
to break the passenger door window with his fist.

“Darius what are you
doing?” Janice yelled as she was still
trying to start the car. She then looked
out the back window and let out a shrill scream that reminded Darius of a train
whistle.

With each blow Darius
dealt out, a fresh spatter of blood appeared on the window. He was lashing out with all his strength but
the window held strong.

“It’s not fucking
breaking!” Darius now shifted his body
so his feet were in a better position to start kicking at the window.

Janice watched him in
a delirious horror as to her it looked like he was peddling an invisible
bicycle, his sneakers making a sickly squealing sound as they slipped when
making contact with the blood on the glass.

“Look at him Janice,
just look at him! He’s not right! He’s not fucking right!”

“Holy shit, did you
see his eyes? Did you see his fucking
eyes Darius?"

The man leaned over
and pressed his face against the back window.
Janice screamed, as the man’s face was a visage pulled directly out of
her worst nightmares. She screamed again
when he looked directly at her and smiled, teeth which resembled black licorice
nibs gleaming within the red glow of the taillights.

There was a gut-wrenching
thump, cracks raced in every direction across the rear window as the man
pounded his fist again and again. On the
fourth attempt the window imploded showering the inside of the car as if
buckets of crushed ice had just overturned into the back seat.

Darius turned
completely around and began to pummel the man with clenched fists as he began
to slither his way into the car; each blow feeling like he was striking a brick
wall. One particular fist connected
solid with the man’s jaw, unhinging it so it the lower part of his face hung
like a crooked picture on a wall.

“The door still won’t open Darius!” Janice screamed as her bladder let go, the
instant warmth almost comforting.

“What
the…motherfu…” Darius’ words were cut
off as a hefty wrench struck him squarely in the center of his forehead.

The sickening crunch
of shattering bone shook Janice from her frenzied tirade of trying to escape
and she vomited onto the steering wheel.

When she looked over
to Darius she saw the man yank the wrench free, chunks of bone and brain which
hung from elastic strands of gore clung to the end of the shiny tool.

The man put the
wrench back in the sheath clipped onto his belt and grimaced as he locked eyes
with Janice. Janice remained still,
frozen in complete terror.

When Janice first
felt the man’s ice cold hands on her face she felt strangely refreshed. He then began to twist as if he were closing
off a water spigot, the first tendon that snapped brought tears to Janice’s
eyes and she passed out before her head was removed.

Present Day

“So what do you say,
want to go check it out this weekend or what?”
Mark was always looking for something interesting to do and when he
found this story online he was more than curious. So he shared what he had read with Vince.

The article was
titled The Wrecker Man of Northern
‘Jersey. It went on about how a gas
station owner named Harry Robart and his daughter Gabby were casualties of a
hit and run on a winding mountain road in 1944.

Harry had come across
a stranded driver who had driven off the road, the car partially getting stuck
in a ditch. He hooked up a tow line to
the rear bumper of the car and was operating the winch when the driver stepped
on the gas.

The car flew out of
the ditch in reverse and slammed into Harry, crushing his midsection between
the two vehicles. Gabby was in the front
seat, the impact caused her head to crash into the dash knocking her
unconscious.

The man got out of
the car to find Harry’s body doubled over and leaning on the trunk of his car,
a river of crimson snaking its way out of his open mouth. He was dead.

Just about to get
back in his car and leave the scene, he noticed Gabby in the oversized mirror
which hung on the passenger door of the wrecker. She was starting to regain consciousness and
spotted the man in the mirror.

She watched in the
mirror as the man slowly approached and withdrew something from the back pocket
of his pants. He opened the door and
asked Gabby if she was alright. As she
shook her head to reassure the man she would be ok the switchblade clicked open
and he thrust it into her stomach.

The latter section of
the article listed eyewitness accounts of seeing the apparitions of Harry and
his daughter along with missing locals and tourists last seen in the general
area, a local legend being born in the form of “The Wrecker Man”.

“Really? Come on, what kind of night would that be,
looking for some dead guy and his dead daughter?” Vince was less than thrilled with the idea.

“Think about it! We can get Cynthia and Vicky to come along;
we will be in the middle of nowhere.
They will probably be scared…the possibilities are endless!” Mark’s enthusiasm had swayed Vince enough.

“Ok bro, let’s do
this! What’s the worst that could
happen…”

Write a Review
Did you enjoy my story? Please let me know what you think by leaving a review! Thanks,
George Pastore

Diane April:
Really liked the concept of this story. The beginning had a great explanation about how things worked in the real world that people tend to overlook. It was a nice change from the usual zombie story that just makes things up as they go along and actual facts don't matter.

Sara Joy Bailey:
The characters are well written, full of depth and life. The plot was thrilling. The author's style flows naturally and the reader can easily slip into the pages of the story. Very well done.

Deleted User:
This is a very clever story in the style of 19th century (and turn of the century) Gothic writing, very reminiscent of Stevenson's The Body Snatchers or even of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (less so of Frankenstein itself, since the author is more minimalist than Shelley's florid, Romantic rhetoric). ...

Alex Rushmer:
I like the intrigue that you introduce from the very beginning of the story. The idea of the girl waking up in the alley with no memory of how she got there and with injuries is very interesting. It was very well done. There were a lot of grammatical errors that need to be fixed though. I think t...

skippybash12:
This story has engaging characters that you care about and a plot that is unpredictable and exciting. It is well written with a believable voice. Great weekend escape and if there was a sequel available I would buy it today -

Alex Reltin:
This is a great story! I love how well you go into detail and emotions of Capri, and Mel. You have amazing dialogue and overall it's just a thrill to read!The only critique I could find is that some of the paragraphs should be separated. For example:-"If Nia would have just let me take the car an...

europeanlove:
I gotta hand it to you. I love reading. I read books everyday. When the book is good I can read it in probably 13 hours. Your story was amazing. Great prose, very imaginative. Incredible dialogue. I am deeply impressed. Keep it up.

Alex Rushmer:
I really love your writing style in this story. Usually the whole narration from a journal sort of thing doesn't work for me, but you really pull it off here. I like the main character's blatant way of putting things. I think that it lends a lot to his character and to the story. You tell it like...

Carolyn Hahn-Re:
I really liked this story! The writing was well done, and the plot was suspenseful. I couldn't stop reading chapter after chapter, on the edge of my seat! The characters were well developed, and true to form. Thank you so much for this wonderful read.